-Amy Wagner

When I transitioned into a new role of Communications Coordinator three years ago, I knew I would miss leading students through those mountain top experiences of mission trips, retreats, and yes, the ELCA Youth Gathering—as exhausting as they can be.

I served three times as the Gathering Synod Coordinator for the Nebraska Synod. The role of Gathering Synod Coordinator is integral in helping prepare congregations experience the ELCA Youth Gathering. A facet of my role as a Gathering Synod Coordinator was to participate in the Gathering either as an adult leader for a congregation or as a volunteer. Since I wasn’t going to be bringing a group to Detroit in 2015, I was more than excited to be a volunteer.

This Gathering has continually renewed my faith in a mighty and powerful God that always shows up in our lives. Sometimes I forget to look for God through the to-do lists and calendars. God was already in Detroit before “the Lutherans” came. But to see God shine, through the hands and feet of the 30,000 participants during the week, is hard to describe. It was countless hugs and high fives, screams of joy, and youthful energy, as far as the eye could see.

Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, addressed the whole community of participants twice, and in her Sunday sermon said, “We were taken out of our normal places wherever they were across this country and the Caribbean, and we were set down here in Detroit. We were just ready—ready to see what was going to happen. The Spirit could come in because we didn’t have our defenses up.”

The Gathering allows young people to see how big the church is, how big the reach can go beyond our communities and how we, as Lutheran Christians in the world, can affect change together. The event hashtag (#riseupELCA) was even trending on all three main social channels throughout the week! This event is a big deal: plain and simple.

It is a joy to be a part of a church that lives and breathes service to our neighbors, near and far. I look forward to the opportunity to volunteer again in Houston in 2018. Will you join me?

Amy Wagner currently serves as the Communication Coordinator for Sheridan Lutheran in Nebraska.

– Cody Miller

I am Cody Miller, and I just came on board as the Service Learning Project Manager for the 2018 Youth Gathering. I graduated from the University of Houston (#GoCoogs), and I have spent nearly my entire life in the city of Houston. I am in love with this wonderful city; I love everything from the culture, to the art, to the people, and everything else that Houston has to offer.

I have been involved in the church in many different capacities. When I was at UH, I was heavily involved with campus ministry. I was a part of youth ministry when I was in high school. Currently, I am on the leadership team for youth ministry at my home congregation, Kinsmen Lutheran.

Kinsmen sent a group of youth to Detroit for the 2015 Gathering. I had the opportunity to listen to the their stories about how the Gathering affected them and helped them grow in their faith, as well as see how they impacted the host city. I heard stories of how God was at work in Detroit, and I am excited to see God at work through the youth in Houston in 2018.

The Youth Gathering is such an incredible ministry. It positively impacts everyone involved from the youth, to the host city, to the congregations. I am excited to be a part of this team.

Houston has a great story to tell. I am excited to see the story of Houston be told and to see God at work in this story.

– Jessica Noonan

Hey y’all, my name is Jessica Noonan. I will be the Service Learning Team Leader for the 2018 ELCA Youth Gathering. I will oversee the development and execution of Service Learning for all students and adult leaders coming to Houston. In 2012, I also served in this role in New Orleans. It is definitely a privilege and an honor to be a part of this holy work.

Listening is a huge part of the work we do from the very beginning—listening to churches, listening to leaders, and listening to organizations doing amazing work in big and small ways in every part of the city. We need to hear what God is already doing through awesome people and organizations, so that we can join them in the journey. God is working all over the city of Houston in some pretty incredible ways.

A little bit about me: I live just west of Houston with my husband, three kids, dog, cat, and hamster. My everyday job is as a Director of Children’s Ministry. This is where I get to work with families from birth to fifth grade and walk with parents and families through faith journeys. Life is pretty full, but when I get a chance, I love to read all types of books, dance with my girls in the living room, take a nice walk, and spend time art journaling. I am looking forward to seeing all of you in Houston in 2018!

They say that Lutheran youth have been gathering for more than 100 years, and they would be correct.  

When the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was formed in 1988, one of the practices passed on by the predecessor church bodies (American Lutheran Church – ALC and Lutheran Church in America – LCA) was the rich tradition of young people and their adult leaders coming together every three years to experience the love of Christ and to share their faith. Congregational youth groups would meet their peers in various settings, universities, and hotels, and spend several days focused on worship, workshops, music, and fellowship.  

Before 1988, ALC and LCA Youth Gatherings occurred in Denver, CO; Banff and Alberta, Canada; Lafayette, IN; Houston, TX; Detroit, MI; New York City, NY; Seattle, WA; Missoula, MT; and Miami, FL. Probably the most notable keynote speaker was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, who preached in front of 20,000 youth at the 1961 ALC Luther League convention in Miami [pictured]. I guess you can say that Youth Gatherings have always been on the cutting edge, challenging young people to do God’s most righteous work.

After the birth of the ELCA, Gatherings have been held in cities that could accommodate thousands of participants, while providing facilities for experiential learning along with a venue that could hold everybody at the same time for worship and other programming. Here is a list of the ELCA Youth Gatherings, with their themes:

• 1988: San Antonio, Rejoice in the Lord Always
• 1991: Dallas, Called to Freedom
• 1994: Atlanta, 2 Be Alive
• 1997: New Orleans, River of Hope
• 2000: St. Louis, Dancing at the Crossroads [40,000 participants]
• 2003: Atlanta, Ubuntu: I am because we are. We are because Christ is. [38,000 participants]
• 2006: San Antonio, Cruzando: Journey with Jesus [37,000 participants]
• 2009: New Orleans, Jesus, Justice, Jazz [36,000 participants]
• 2012: New Orleans, Citizens with the Saints [33,000 participants]
• 2015: Detroit, Rise up Together [30,000 participants]

Many of you remember that the Gatherings in 2000, 2003, and 2006 were two-week, back to back, identical events. The rationale behind that was so that each Gathering week would be smaller (15,000 people rather than 30,000), making the event less crowded and more intimate. It also ensured that no congregation would be turned away for lack of sleeping space, as happened in New Orleans in 1997.  The formula worked well, but was ultimately financially unsustainable, so in 2009 we returned to the one week, one event model and welcomed 36,000 participants back to New Orleans.

Our demographics have changed, and the overall shrinking of mainline denominations may play a role in decreasing numbers of participants, but the ELCA Youth Gathering continues to capture the hearts and ignite faith in tens of thousands of people every three years.

Have you been to a Gathering? Will you join us in Houston in 2018? Over the next several months, we will be walking with you to help you prepare your youth for the journey. We are here for your questions, and hope you share your stories with us. We know anecdotally that the Gathering has inspired young people to go to seminary or otherwise consider a life in the church. The Gathering has also influenced many to carry out God’s work with their hands, out in the world as teachers, artists, or social workers. The Gathering reminds us that we need to stop, turn around, and look at the communities in which we’re planted, and make them better places.

We all know that it’s the work of the Holy Spirit – the Gathering is nothing that we do ourselves, on our own. There are a host of people throughout this country who give their time and talent to make the Gathering happen. Every youth leader is a worker in the field, so that each young person may awaken to new faith. I’m reminded of the words from the 2000 promo video: “You’d be surprised what we hear when you think we’re not listening.”

And God saw that it was very good.

-Paul Amlin

I’ve been around the ministry of the Gathering in some capacity since the years leading up to the 1997 River of Hope event in New Orleans. I had brought a small group with me from Florida. I can still remember vivid details about ’97, including the stunned faces of our group when we first entered the dome for worship. Our young people (and me too!) were blown away in seeing thousands of other people just like us gathered together, as Lutherans, to worship, sing, conga, and pray. From that moment I was hooked on the ministry of the Gathering as a “game changer” for my ministry. The conversations and kinship of that group extended for years with this common experience as catalyst.

Since then, I’ve attended each Gathering. In San Antonio, I worked with the seminaries of the ELCA to talk with youth about their own call to ministry. I recently met one of those “youth” who is now a pastor and recalled our visit – powerful!

The past three cycles, I have served with  planning teams. Most recently, in Detroit, I served with teams, in my role as Program Director for Youth Ministry in the ELCA. I continue to marvel at the impact the Gathering has both in terms of lives impacted through our presence and service in communities, together with its impact on church groups who now share the same bond as me and my small group from ’97.

Recently, I was with a group of youth workers who, without prompting from me, began discussing the Gathering. One said of his group’s comments upon entering worship, “I go to First Lutheran, but THIS is my church!” – [Ed Wosinski of Muskegon, MI] Another leader shared how her youth group’s enthusiasm for pulling weeds in a neighborhood of Detroit led to a community of neighbors embracing them, thanking them them for giving the neighbors hope that they could recover and reclaim their neighborhood.

I thank God for the ministry of the Gathering in my own life and in the lives of the countless others we reach in the process.

Pastor Paul Amlin serves as the Program Director for Youth Ministry for ELCA Churchwide Ministries. 

-Thomas Tresselt

In 1999, my oldest daughter Melissa and my wife Carol attended the Gathering in St Louis. Upon returning, I heard nothing but great stories about the event and how the Gathering changed their lives. This prompted me to apply to be a member of the Gathering Volunteer Corps for the 2003 Gathering in Atlanta.

With a bit of apprehension, I arrived in Atlanta and was assigned to security for the convention center and dome. I was in awe that first night experiencing the mass gathering in the dome. I truly felt the Holy Spirit’s presence in the Georgia Dome.

On the second day of the Gathering, I met a person who changed my life. Pastor Daina Salnitis was the Safety and Security Team Leader for the Gathering. She had heard that I was a retired lieutenant from the NYPD, was currently a security director at Pace University in New York City, and had experience in managing large events. When the Gathering ended, I was asked to be part of the Safety and Security planning team for the next Gathering.

As the father of four children, I felt a calling to this challenging offer. Since then, I have been the Security Director for the past four Gatherings, and I’m looking forward to 2018 in Houston. It’s rewarding to know that when some people questioned our decision to go to New Orleans in 2009 and Detroit in 2015, I played an important part in reaffirming the decision to keep the Gathering in these cities that needed us.

Throughout this journey, I have found that my faith has grown stronger, and I have made some lifelong friends along the way. Knowing that I play an important role in providing our young people the opportunity to experience Jesus Christ is an invaluable reward to me and gives me the motivation to keep going.

Thomas Tresselt works as the Associate Director of Safety and Security at Pace University in the greater New York City area.